From the first domestication of the horse in the evolution from draft animal to the thoroughbred riding horses of today, there have been in the past continuing advances in an attempt to make both the horse and its rider more comfortable. Early cloth saddles have progressed to the now more conventional rigid saddles. However, in the construction of even the earliest saddles there was apparently an awareness that the rider preferably not contact the backbone of the horse. Thus evolved varying means of suspending the rider above the backbone of the horse.
Because of the varying sizes and shapes of horses, emphasis has been placed on designing a saddle that will comfortably fit the varying shapes and sizes of many horses without either causing abrasive wear on the horse or elaborate adjustment of the saddle. It is well known that horses have greatly varying shapes so that one saddle which comfortably fits one particular horse, may not be comfortably placed onto and ridden on another horse.
Attempts have been made in the prior art to introduce into saddle design, designs which are flexible, such as those made of flexible materials, in an attempt to provide a single saddle which may comfortably fit a variety of horse shapes. For example, applicant is aware of U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,343,674 and 5,435,116 which issued to Brown on Sep. 6, 1994, and Jul. 25, 1995, respectively. Both patents disclose a flexible saddle tree having a pair of laterally spaced apart flexible synthetic elongate members (bars) connected by a spanning member and a seat element. The Brown design teaches pivotally mounting the elongate members to the seat element at forward pivot mountings and to the spanning member at rearward pivot mountings. The elongate members are members variably flexible by means of an elongate waisted shape, and by means of forwardly extending fingers, and by various stiffening members mounted to the elongate members. The elongate members are padded on their interior surfaces so as to cover the otherwise exposed heads of the bolts which secure the elongate members onto corresponding pivot fulcrums mounted to the saddle tree. Flexing motion of the elongate members is accommodated by pivotal motion having two degrees of freedom, that is, the members are free to rock on the pivot fulcrums.
What is neither contemplated, taught, nor suggested, is an acknowledgement that a single set of bars cannot be properly employed to fit a wide variety of horse shapes and thus that it may be required to quickly and, preferably, easily interchange one set of elongate members with a differently shaped second set of elongate members. Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide a much less complicated structure than that of Brown, where each pair of elongate members may be tailored to the shape of a particular horse, rather than attempting to provide a single saddle for all horse shapes. In the present invention, a simplified design of pivotable elongate members may be quickly and easily interchanged with elongate members having a different shape, adapted to comfortably fit the saddle onto a differently shaped horse.